Daily Number

46.9%

November 30, 2018

A new report from the U.S. Census Bureau points out that in earlier generations, young adults in the United States “were expected to have finished school, found a job, and set up their own household during their 20s — most often with their spouse and with a child soon to follow” but nowadays they don’t reach those milestones at anything like the same clip as their parents did. (Young adults are defined as those in the 18-34 age group.)

In particular, the trend for one of those key measures of adulthood for Americans — getting out from under the parental wings (and roof) — has tilted significantly in recent years. The report states, “In 2005, the majority of young adults lived independently in their own household, which was the predominant living arrangement in 35 states. A decade later, by 2015, the number of states where the majority of young people lived independently fell to just six … More young people today live in their parents’ home than in any other arrangement: 1 in 3 young people, or about 24 million 18- to 34-year-olds, lived in their parents’ home in 2015.”

Nowhere is the stay-at-home tendency more pronounced than in New Jersey. In 2015, almost half (46.9 percent) of young New Jerseyans lived in their parents’ home; (the breakdown, state by state is given in Table 3 of the report). Other states with high rates of stay-at-home young adults in 2015 were Connecticut (41.6 percent), New York (40.6 percent), California (38.1 percent) and tied in fifth place, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island (both 37.1 percent).

Moreover, in its review of the statistics for 2005, the report shows that even then the stay-at-home rate for New Jersey’s young adults was the highest in the country. In 2005, the percent of young adults in the Garden State who lived with the folks was 36.1 percent. Next came New York (33.2 percent), Connecticut (32.8 percent), Hawaii (32.5 percent), and in joint fifth place 10 years ago were Pennsylvania and Louisiana (both 30.5 percent).